North Alabama’s journey in making it to Saturday’s football game

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(#1) Quarterback Zach Wilson in the second quarter. BYU played Boise State at the Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho on November 6, 2020.2020 BYU Football at Boise State11/06/20Photography by Nate Edwards© BYU PHOTO 2020 All Rights Reserved (801) 422-732

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The 8th-ranked Brigham Young University Cougars play the North Alabama Lions for the first time this Saturday. As one of the original games on the pre-COVID schedule, this game will be anything but normal for the North Alabama Lions.

As one of 17 FCS schools playing football this fall, North Alabama has had an interesting ride in 2020.

Starting the season on October 3rd, North Alabama has played only three games this season. The Lions lost all three games, playing every game with at least a week of rest in between.

Lions Head Coach Chris Willis said about the season, “Lots of work behind the scenes. I’ve been proud of everybody. Players, coaches, managers, everybody. Everybody’s done their part. Here we are hopefully, to get this game off and going Saturday for our game number four.”

Saturday’s game is also the first time North Alabama will face a ranked FBS team in the school’s history.

“Really good football team. By far the best football team this university has ever matched up against in the history of football. As well as me as a coach in my 20 something years of coaching.”

Regardless of the unique season and situation, North Alabama will come ready to play on Saturday.

“Yeah, I mean I think they need to embrace it. They need to go out there and play with a lot of energy, and I expect us to do that and compete our tails off.”

So far this season, North Alabama hasn’t allowed a single score in the first quarter. We’ll see if they continue that streak Saturday against BYU’s high-powered offense.

Kickoff between the Cougars and Lions will be at 3 p.m. EST on BYUtv. 

You can also catch another stream of the game on the BYUtv app. This “second stream experience” will feature a commercial-free conversation with Spencer Linton, David Nixon and Mitch Mathews.

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